> The last point is essential. Leff told me about a mileage run he took in 2003. United ran a promotion where its elite fliers could get five-times bonus miles,

> The last point is essential. Leff told me about a mileage run he took in 2003. United ran a promotion where its elite fliers could get five-times bonus miles, instead of the double miles they were ordinarily entitled to. So he flew round-trip to Singapore for $700 and pocketed around 100,000 MileagePlus miles, then enough to redeem for a round-trip business class ticket to Europe. Last time I looked, domestic one-way business class reward seats were going for 25,000 points on MileagePlus, and that's their "Saver" reward, which isn't available as much as their "Standard" reward, which is 50k each way for business class. So it sounds like United is trimming your ability to accrue miles, but also requiring more miles to earn a seat.